you're watching "worldwide exchange," i'm ross westgate. headlines from around the globe, stocks in europe firmly in the red after a sell-off across u.s. equities sees the nasdaq post its worst session since 2011. nikkei heavyweight plunges 8% as the owner of niklo drops its profit guidance. jpmorgan and wells fargo, it's expected they'll see a drop in profits. the trading activity remains

subdued and legal expenses are likely to weigh. and spending cuts will be broad and permanent. the italian foreign minister tells world leaders and policymaker as they gather in washington for the imf world bank meeting. you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. very good warm welcome to you on the last "worldwide exchange" of the week. we kick off with the latest from the iea, the international energy agency and their monthly report for march. crude prices were range-bound in march with supply outages in the middle east, north africa and russia/ukraine tensions. the forecast of global demand growth to be trim to 1.3 million barrels a day. global supplies to 1.2 million barrels a day.

march led by steeply lower opec output. crude supplies plum emed to 29.62 million barrels a day. those are the highlights. as expected, oecd oil stocks after depleting at an alarming rate in 2013 have shifted gears. let's get reaction to that. joining us is neil atkinson from informer. >> morning, ross. >> those are the highlights. >> yes. i'm not wholly surprised by any of that. i will take issue with you that oil stocks fell alarmingly in 2013. >> that's what they say. that's what they say. >> yes, they do. oil stocks are reasonably within comfortable levels in terms of long-term average. we are in a period where our northern hemisphere winter has ended. peak winter demand is fading.

we're going into refinery maintenance which you suggested, which is normal for this time of year. we have reasonably ample supply. opec country is producing less. there's plenty of supply growth. on the other hand we have still sluggish demand around the world. so i think the prices are range-bound as they have been for most of the year and they're likely to stay that way. >> as they have been the last two years. >> four years in a row. the brent price for 2014 as a whole, my forecast is it's going to hover somewhere around 108 to $110 a barrel. it's excursions up or down from that figure are not likely to be interesting. >> why do you think oil prices have been so incredibly steady? >> well, we've had unspectacular growth in global oil demand. even china which of course for most of the first decade of the new century was growing by leaps and bounds in terms of oil demand. we've seen to some extent a leveling off of the rate of

growth in oil demand in china and other developing countries. peak oil demand was reached in the united states and some european countries ten years ago. the oil demand front is not exciting. >> you don't think we'll have peak oil demand for the world. some people forecasting 2020 we might hit peak oil demand. >> it was peak oil supply a few years ago. we are talking about the potential of peak oil demand. as countries like china move further along the development curve as car ownership levels rise to saturation points in china and as economies start to move away toward low carbon sources of energy, all the pressures are there to adapt the old phrase about the stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones. we're not going to run out of -- >> from the sound of it. >> shake your money said it many years ago. >> you talk about a low cover, noncarbon alternatives.

fascinating report in the telegraph. solar is getting to the point where we have to stand up and produce electricity. >> the cost of the panels has come down dramatically in recent years. the big driving factor that in the end will lead to higher rates of takeup for nonconventional energy sources. it's better technology, less reliance on subsidies than we might otherwise have expected. >> good to see you, neil. >> thank you, ross. >> neil atkinson joining us from informer. meanwhile, quite a heavy sell-off state side in stocks at the end of session yesterday. it has fed through into this european session, we're just over an hour and five minutes into the trading day. decline is outpacing advancers at the moment on the dow jones stock 600 by more than 9-1 as you can see. the ftse yesterday was up 6 points. but the dow down 1.6%, the s&p

off 2%, the nasdaq off 3%. the biggest drop for the tech stock index in 2 1/2 years. this is where we stand this morning as a result, the ftse down a percent, along with the xetra dax, the cac current off as well as the ftse mib. the yield at the moment 2.65%, 30-year treasuries had a really good bid auction, in fact, the lowest auction yields for 30-year u.s. treasury in about ten months. 13 billion. that yield dropping 6 basis points. ten-year gilt is down. we have been down to 101.32.

euro/dollar, 137. we have been up to 13 during the course of the session. the nikkei is down to its lowest level for six months. for more on that session, here's this man, sri. >> hello there, ross. the currency markets as you said play the part in this pronounced weakness on the nikkei. down by 2.4% right now. this means that the nikkei is on track for its worst -- its sharpest weekly drop since march 2011. just to set the context for you, remember what happened in march 2011. it was the triple disaster, the tsunami and the nuclear crisis as well. so that sets the context for you. it wasn't just the currency that imperiled the nikkei. it was also the very weak lead, the tumble that we got on the u.s. markets. in the only that, there are a couple stock specific stories i wanted to talk about, including fast retailing.

the index heavyweight and the consumer clothing staple. that stock got hit hard, ross, down by well over 8% after they cut their full-year operating profit and remember, as i said, it was an index heavyweight. that took the nikkei lower as well. staying with japan, i wanted to bring you up to speed at what's been happening at sony. they just warned at its vio pcs in february. its urged customers to stop using them. the stock was weaker but not sharply lower. let's get to china because the market's weak but they seem to be taking the sell-off elsewhere in the market in their stride. the focus is on the data. the focus is also on the prospects of further stimulus action from the pboc. there seems to be some policy caution from the chinese central bank. the vice governor said the government and central bank should be cautious with stimulus since, in his words, it tends to

be less efficient than market forces in of the booing growth. perhaps there's an element of diminishing returns here, the chinese government and the pbc are cognizant of what happened in the post-crisis era. they don't want to create excessive leverage in the system of course. we have lending data from china over the weekend. we have a big q1 data midweek wednesday, q1 gdp, retail sales, fai and industrial output. so continued risk events really coming from this side of the world next week to look forward to. >> yes, absolutely. sri, for now, thank you. we'll catch you later in the program. joining us with his thoughts, tim harris, ceo of harris castleen to. pretty horrible day for u.s. equities but we had a good day earlier in the week after the minutes.

so your thoughts? how do you define the ruins on this. >> volatilitvolatility. on the upside, the first time this year, in the last couple of weeks we had seen mutual fund flows resuming in emerging market equities in a positive fashion. yesterday, what do we see? the greek bond sale coming through at a pretty extraordinary success. >> perhaps if there's anything, it's a throwoff in the market, that might be it. or overexuberance. >> that was a relatively small sale in the great scheme of things, 3 billion to 4 billion. the fact people were knocking on the door still tells you there's a lot of cash outside. >> 20 billion bid for that. >> yes, absolutely. if you look at european bond auction, these level of hopes, when people want it, the people come. my point is, there are contradictory offers there in terms of risk appetite. the u.s. is all about valuation and the volatility is about risk

appetite. and what was the source over the last few days. what's been seeding the sell-off has been nasdaq, the tech, the biotech, social media. these are stocks which trade -- nasdaq's average p/e is 30 something. the u.s. p/e is 16. that's one of the most forward-looking p/es today. we're looking at a gdp number coming out of about 3% as we get on to calmer waters this year. we haven't had calm waters for quite some time in the u.s. i can't really pull out the fact that the growth story is crumbling in the u.s. it's about valuation and risk appetite. i wanted to maybe the geopolitical situations around the world -- >> is it going to underpin valuations in the s&p? >> in the long run you buy equities. and i haven't set that wholeheartedly and consistently for quite some time.

in the long run when i see the u.s. earnings story go from $105 on the s&p to 117 to 125, to 135 over the next four, five years, that makes me feel good. s there a rising tide of earnings and cash flows which will underpin the markets. >> there's a quiet confidence when you say that, which i quite like. plenty more on the program. it's water resistant. it has a fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor. i'm not talking about my director. it's samsung's latest phone. will it get investors' hearts racing? we're at the launch of the s5 to get our finger on the pulse. we also speaked to an athens-based economy who says it's too early for greece to have returned to the markets. and it's time to recalculate

nigeria, that's the line from our frontier market strategist who joins us at 10:50 cet. she says there will be an extraordinarily re-evaluation of the size of their economy. also, we'll be in jacksonville, florida, crowd funding will fundamentally change how startups find success. and at 10:30 cet, we'll preview the u.s. bank earnings with the director of research at sax. he expects material improvement in the sector's volatility. all that and more still to come.

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you're watching "worldwide exchange." you're watching cnbc's "worldwide exchange." earnings season kicked off in earnest when jpmorgan posts its numbers before the bell. jaymon dimon described this quarter as nerve-racking. analysts believe the bank could start to move past its legal problems. wells fargo follows soon after. investors begin to get a sense of some of the key themes impacting lender's state side,

despite trading up year to date, the possible slowdown in consumer lending could have hit profits. there's the potential for a bounce in shares after the price tumbled last month. following its failure of the fed's capital stress test. they couldn't raise dividends that they wanted to. bank of america reports on wednesday after benefiting recently from cost-cutting measures while goldman sachs and morgan stanley will close out the week. the focus likely to be on investment banking and wealth management. tim still with us. what are you going to look for for these guys? >> from the banks? >> yes. >> they're moving on. i think there's quite a mix. you look at bank of america, citi, jp, their retail banks, commercial banks as much as investment banking. if you are having a u.s. economy which is growing at a growth of 3, nominal 5 to 6, these banks

ben bit from that. that is a powerful force. i think they are increasingly cash positive now. i think their abilities to grow their dividends is as good now as it's been any time since the crisis. financials from a cyclicality point of view, the financial cyclicals are looking interestingly placed now. i think that's one of the sectors we'd be most exposed to. >> what about european banks have been the leverage, to play on the recovery and the play on the eurozone holding together. >> yes. >> we're now going to go through aqa, asset quality reviews and possibly more -- >> selectively, one or two of the banks still having to prove their balance sheet worth. i think they're through the worst. a lot of the balance sheet rebuilding has been done in europe.

we are looking for draghi to support this into the economy as we go forward. you remember with the uk experience when the bank of england was putting money, funding for lending in. a lot of the banks have been rebuilding balance sheets. it's still the really early days of the recovery of the eurozone. the banks are less valuing the opportunity set in europe than the case i've just made in the u.s. what we've seen in the first quarter of the year so far is cyclicality rules, construction sector, the automotive sector around the top. who's in there with them? the banks. the banks still have something to offer them. >> tim, stay there for a second. news out. they expect to offer a letter of intent for its event for the next few days. the target is staking a 49% with a total investment of around 500

million euros. then they will target 2,000 job cuts and a restructuring of debt. imf christine lagarde says quantitative easing is just a matter of time. lagarde said she was encouraged by recent comments by mario draghi to step in to keep the economic recovery on track and fight off the threat of deflation. >> it's a risk because it's a threat against growth. it's a threat against jobs. and it makes the servicing of debt quite heavy. so we are very encouraged to see that the ecb has acknowledged that risk and is prepared to take every appropriate measures to fight against it. >> central bank's policymakers

gather in washington for the imf meeting they expressed concern to cnbc about the deflation risk in europe. >> if you look at europe as a whole, the growth rate has stayed modest. the risk of deflation is something that has a lot of people concerned. and you know, the answers lie in, i this i, policy decisions that could be taken. that's actually the good news. there are solutions that would help. >> i understand where the challenge is but the fact is that europe has come back from the edge. i'm actually more bullish about europe. over the medium term than some others, simply because the fact is it has enormous capacity. >> i think the point is pretty easy and mario draghi made this point pretty clear in his last press conference. we do believe that the deflationary risks are pretty limited.

so we portray an outlack for the inflation rates that expect a gradual recovery and this recovery will also be reflected in gradually rising inflation rates. >> some of the thoughts about that. tim? will we get qe from the ecb at some point? >> i think so. it's a path well traveled now. after draghi did whatever it took to save the eurozone, the euro, i think we now move on. this deflation issue i think is clear and present. we've seen the japanese example. we've seen historic examples. we don't want to go there. we saw what the federal reserve had to do. i don't think we're quite at that stage of life that the federal reserve was at four years ago, five years ago. but i think the point that madam lagarde makes, the threat to growth jobs and the servicing of debt, that's the real thing. obviously deflation kills consumption. i think you will see the ecb

moving forward, not in quite the tidal wave of support that we've seen previously but certainly positively. >> there is one thing, though, that may help consumer if you have prices that are lower than come down, cost of living gets a bit more affordable for those who have wage increases. that might actually help consumption. >> look where the uk has gotten, ross. it's taken us five years to get to a stage where wages have overtaken inflation. inflation is still running. because people feel richer because they have jobs and their jobs are paying them more. productivity allows that to happen. europe is in a different situation. when you have a downside, you get stalling of investments and potentially of growth. the ecb coming in, putting more liquidity into markets. that is an inflationary policy. what that will also do, i would imagine, in the medium term, it will look at the euro trading

with risk on the downside by midyear to the end of the year. the germans would love that. guess what, your terms of trade improve. suddenly as the great exporter to the world finds they're that much more competitive. >> asset price, how would it view european assets versus u.s. assets? >> i think we're in a different position innen bods to equities in europe than we are in the u.s. i think there will be down side risk bond yields bringing that down. if people are more confident thatthere's inflation coming down the road, that will allow the implicit growth assumptions to improve. that will help equities. >> any qe in the last five years has generated any inflation, really. generated asset price inflation. >> it's better than the alternative. >> i get that. i get that. >> i wouldn't want to be in the alternative. >> we agree on that. good to see you. have a good week.

tim harris, ceo at harris capital. talking about the european central bank, it's teamed up to the bank of england to push for an easing of rules governing controversial debt products which many blamed for their role in the financial crisis. central banks want to make it easier to trade asset-backed securities in a bit to ramp up lending to credit staffed companies. it's all part of an ecb campaign to highlight the difference between high quality bundled up european debt from the more risky u.s. loans we had before the financial crisis. and two central banks team up, two others seem to be going head to head. go to cnbc.com to find out more about the showdown between ben bernanke and rajan. ultrahigh definition video as well as a heart monitor, can it really beat the competition?

june yoon is in seoul with her thoughts and analysis. hi, june. >> hi, ross. the galaxy s5 has been released in 125 countries around the world. samsung seems to be counting on this model to help second quarter numbers. from what we saw from the earnings guidance this week, they're looking at two straight quarters of lower operating profit. high expectations are five. what we can see so far, samsung is relying less on hardware and more on special features like the ones you just mentioned, ross, rather than the design of the phone itself. also pricing wise, they've priced it 10% less than the galaxy s4 to push up sales. the galaxy s5 was released two weeks ago in korea on march 27th. this pre-release was out of control. it was the telecom companies here that went ahead without their consent because the telcos

wanted to start selling them before their new subscriber band has started. of course samsung does not release official numbers but local press and analysts here are saying that the daily average sales of the galaxy s5 in korea have been at about 7,000 phones a day, slightly below the 8,000 units a day that the galaxy s4 saw. this is during a time when the telecom companies are serving a ban on new subscribers. we have lg, the g pro 2 and the 1m. analysts are seeing apple's iphone 6 to come out sometime in the second half of this year. the second quarter might be a good time for samsung to get a head start on the competition. ross, back to you. >> we'll see what happens with it. new phone out in the market. thank you. have a good weekend. amazon is planning to expand

its amazon fresh service to 10 or 20 new markets according to jeff bezos. the service allows the order of groceries or thousands of other products for same-day or next-day delivery. this would be an expansion of the service. it's now only available in three cities. bezos saying they are in the sixth generation of tests and the eighth generation of designs. how many generations do you need before you get it out? anyway, how do you feel about amazon delivering your groceries? are you a buyer or are you more of a shop the aisle kind of person? and can you see a future of drones delivering e-mail connects? if you want to join the conversation at "worldwide exchange," please do. e-mail us worldwide@cnbc.com. tweet @cnbcwex.

greece is back. should investors be cheering the country's return to the debt market or does the oversubscription of yesterday's bond sale overshadow continued economic issues?

you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe.

and let's recap the headlines today for you from around the globe. stocks in europe firmly in the red after a sell-off. of course u.s. markets sees the nasdaq post its worst session since 2011. nikkei heavyweight fast retailing plunges as much as 8%. jpmorgan and wells fargo kick off first quarter earnings in earnest. they expect the u.s. banks to see a drop in profits. it remains subdued in legal expenses way. plus, spending cuts will be broad and permanent. the italian finance minister and world leaders gather in washington for the imf world bank meeting. we're an hour and a half

into the trading day in europe. we are firmly in the red following big sell-off state side. the dow down 1.6%, the nasdaq off 3%, s&p off 2%. right now, ftse 100, xetra dax, cac, all down around about 1% and the ftse mib has losses of 0.75%. it has meant the dollar has gone on to the back foot, the yen having its biggest weekly gain in four weeks. today, dollar/yen, currently down to 101.75. the euro/dollar, around the 1.35 mark. sterling just below 1.68. yields are lower today on the bond market. they have been lower on the session. we're slightly higher from where we started measuring this. ten-year treasury yields, 2.65%. we had been down to 2.62. dropped five basis points from where we were late on wednesday.

a huge success for greece. the country managed to attract a jaw dropping 20 billion euros bid for its five-year bond sale. the paper sold total 3 billion in the end. it has a final yield under 4.9%. christine lagarde says the sale was encouraging for the greek authorities. >> there's a great appetite which i would take as a sign of trust and confidence in the recovery of that economy. i think it's an encouragement also for the greek people who are really put up with a lot of hardship and for the greek authorities who have driven that laboriously but driven the effort. it's not over but it's a clear indication that the direction is good. >> joining us with his thoughts, senior government bond analyst. thanks for joining us. we understand now that 4 % of

this sale was sold to asset managers, 33% to hedge funds. 47% of this sold to uk investors. we'll see how that breaks down. what's your own thoughts on this? this is just reflective of an enormous search for yield. >> yes, that's basically it. we are in an environment where central banks are flooding the world with liquidity and safe haven yields, treasuries and bunds are at extremely low levels. it's not a new thing. it shouldn't come as a surprise that the greek debt sale was a success. we've seen the ten-year greek government bond yield coming down to below 6%. we've seen portuguese yields drop and both of these countries are still in rescue programs, adjustment programs. they are still not investment grade but nevertheless, investors which are obviously not confined to investment rate,

investment bonds, have bought these markets, have bought into these fairly liquid markets also. that's what has been driving also demand for this new issue by greece. >> it is extraordinary to me that we have at auction a greek debt that is yielding less than where spanish debt yields were back in june. you know, they were just over 5%. we have greek debt being sold at it less than that today. >> this really has been going on since july 2012 after draghi's pitch to do whatever it takes to save the euro. italy and spain are not performing that strongly anymore. yield spreads are not narrowing that much in 2014 now. it's the second best -- ireland has been the outperformer of last year and this year it's

going to be portugal and greece. what really concerns me is that people are increasingly not looking at fundamentals anymore. this greek issue is being hailed as an indication of the economic improvement while we are still very deep stuck in the problems in greece. i think that is something which is falling short of the today's headlines. >> stay there. joining us by an economist and founder of thought for action on the phone from athens. you heard maris's concerns. what are the fundamentals in terms of the greek bond sale. >> they gave a signal that we're doing better. frankly, i would agree that with do need to continue our structural reforms. we're not out of our economic crisis because our growth rates

are still very, very close to zero. the expectation is we're going to do better and go to 0.1 by the end of 2014. that would not necessarily, if you just look at the productivity rates of the country, you wouldn't say this would be a fundamental way to suggest this bond issuance was a correct one or a good one. the bond issuance was basically based on the fact that the european union for the last two years have done anything and everything possible to hold the eurozone together. and the confidence rating that you see is not just a greek confidence rating. it's a european union's confidence rating. >> now, what was interesting, we had comments out saying this bond sale means that greece can borrow bigger sums. i don't know whether that is a good or bad thing.

>> well, it is true we can barrow bigger sums. is this what we really want to do? are we borrowing to invest? are we borrowing to put it into a productive capacity which is at this point very shaggy still, very, very weak, very big bureaucratic hurdles and overregulated and still needs to go through structural changes? are these bond issuances mainly a signal, it was not an issuance that was there to finance much of our needs. we're still under a lot of our needs are covered by the lending agreements we had with the troika. yes, we could borrow more but is this our interest? >> i don't know. maris, final one to you. if you are -- let's not say you're not trading this. let's say you've bought this greek yield, just below 5% and you intend to hold it to redemption. you get in 5% for the next five years. what is the risk of you not

being paid back or being restructured? at the end of the day that's all you're going to care about. >> first of all, this issue was sold due to under uk law which means that collective action clause is not included. so it's going to be more difficult to bail in investors in that particular issue. i feel realatively safe on that ground and on the second ground, i would assume having put so much money into the greek economy or having gone through so much effort to bring the economy back on track, the european union will not let greece fail in the second attempt. i would assume once greece comes to the eu and asks for another debt rescheduling, another reduction in emergency lending interest rates and all these things, they will succeed, they

will get it and they will not default on this bond within the next five years. >> which at the end of the day is all that really matters if you're going to hold it, right? >> right. if things turn to the worst, if greece decides they will borrow more because they can borrow more, they'll be piling up more and more debt. take the five-year yield of close to 5%. that in itself means that the fiscal position will start to deteriorate again rather than improving. people will start to raise the question again about debt sustainability and possibly there might be a turnaround where greece will start to have to pay higher yields for those bonds. >> fair point. maris, thank you for joining us. thank you for joining us on the

phone as well from thought for action. we'll take a short break. still to come, 24 african markets expect to recalculate their gdps in the next two years. stay tuned as we hear how that could affect the confidence of investors and companies.

you're watching "worldwide exchange.." chinese government and central bank should be cautious in implementing stimulus programs. that's according to an official who says natural market forces are more efficient to show growth. eunice has more for us from hong kong. >> in terms of inflation picture, it was pretty much what people had expected. inflation looks like it's largely in control and it's probably going to stay this way for quite some time. the economic conditions are such that we're seeing the economy slowing down. there aren't pricing pressures, commodity prices are weak. when you look at the property prices we're seeing those softening as well. overall, people are looking at

these numbers saying that cpi came in rising by 2.4%. a lot of that because of vegetable prices. the ppi, the producer price index at the factory gates with those fell by 2.3%, largely because of overcapacity issues. again, mostly in rhine with what people expected and people believed that, yes, this does open the door for stimulus. just because the door is open for stimulus doesn't necessarily mean the government officials want to walk through that door. ross? >> no. we'll have to see what happens with that. eunice, for now, thank you very much. let's get the thought from a global strategist at lgt capital partners. mikio, thanks very much indeed for joining us. bearing in mind what eunice was just saying, what is the trend for china's equity indices? >> i think the -- as far as the broad chinese markets are concerned, best case is that they are in a sideways range,

slightly pointing lower. i don't think that's really changed. and that's certainly one of the reasons is because you were discussing the sim lus. even if there were to be a stimulus, it wouldn't be efficient at this moment and the market obviously knows this. we just need a bit more time until the sins of the past are digested. >> yes, the china economy is slowing, as you say, for fairly good reason. are we going to get to a more long-term sustainable path here with less risk? >> well, eventually, yes. but you know, between the position when we are now and, you know, the brighter, better, more sustainable growth pattern for china, there is a relatively sizable debt issue to be resolved. stemming from the, shall i say,

excessive or at the very least, a very, very fast credit expansion that we've seen between 2008 and actually now. so that issue needs to be resolved in a manner that is really sufficient to boost confidence in that economy, not only by the chinese themselves but also by foreign investors. only time we'll -- >> you still think chinese equities will underperform asia and emerging markets. we've had this bounce recently. put that into context first. >> well, i mean, yes, there was a bounce in recent weeks, but if you do a simple chart and put basically more or less any chinese index with very few exceptions in certain segments of the market. if you put any major chinese index against the global index or the asian index you'll see that the trend is pointing lower.

not excessively lower but gradually lower. we've had a lot uptick over the past few weeks. i think that's, you know, it's obviously good but not good enough for a turnaround scenario. >> mikio, stay there. we want to talk about japan as well. the nikkei 220 down as well. it's down close to 8%, the clothing giant cutting its operating forecast, high cost and weak demand. investors know it's because of the expected fallout from the sales tax hike. mikio, how exposed is the japanese market? i don't know whether you have views about fast retailing in particular. >> well, i mean, i think the japanese stock market in general to start with a general picture, is basically the mirror image of

what's been going on in china. so as china has been recovering quite strongly or bouncing back quite strongly in the more recent weeks, japan has been on the receiving end. but the bigger picture again, i think japan has turned the corner at least for potentially for a cycle that could last for a few years. i don't think in the very long term it's a good play. for this cycle it's a good play. it's consolidating now. that's actually -- the current levels are quite attractive as we've seen quite -- some of the optimism being taken out and also the fear of the economic or the gdp slowdown that we are likely to see in coming months because of the tax hike. those negatives are being priced in and i think they can get out of the way now so that we can move on. >> good to see you. thanks for that. mikio kumada.

nigeria, the rebasing suggests its twice the previous size with a value of more than $500 billion. the calculation includes telecommunications services as well as film industry known as nollywood. they've decided the gross national product of nigeria is 89% bigger than they previously thought. 89%? how on earth can you recalculate it that much? >> that's a lot for sure. the reality is the figures they were using previously to calculate the gdp were from the 1990s. so they were really outdated. they're using a base year from 2010 which is a much more accurate reflection of reality. it includes sectors that were previously not accounted for, such as the ones you listed, telecommunications. >> they just weren't measuring? >> some of them were not

measured at all. the telecommunications sector was measured at 0.8% gdp. now it's at over 8%. nollywood was not measured at all. some sectors were assumed to be much bigger such as oil and gas, are now much smaller. >> smaller percentage of the economy. >> as a percentage of the gdp, correct. >> what does this mean? not that they had big debt-to-gdp ratios, their debt-to-gdp is halved as well? >> that's one of the key issues here. the government has now much stronger financial indicators and is going to be much more able to borrow in global financial markets. what that will mean in effect is the government will probably increase public spending. we think that the government is going to spend much more specifically in infrastructure and education and health care. >> is this going to, on its own,

encourage greater fdi now that you're the biggest economy in africa, does it automatically trigger more flows, more investment? >> yes, for sure. it will simply just rise the competition in the market, in itself. nigeria is now not only the largest economy in africa, it's amongst the 26th biggest economies in the world now. so that is going to increase -- >> that hits a lot of benchmarks, doesn't it? >> yes. >> what does this mean for the rest of africa, are other african countries going to start doing the same thing and realize we just haven't measured things right? are they going to jump on the band wagon? and what does that mean. >> ghana was the first in 2010. that increased the size of the economy on paper by 60% overnight. 24 other markets are thinking about doing a similar activity. the impact will vary from economy to economy. in angola, the impact will not

be as pronounced because the country just came out of a civil war ten years ago. for other markets the impact will be bigger. we think it's going to increase the overall size of the sub-saharan african economy. that of course will mean that sub-saharan africa is not only attractive now because of its growth potential but also because of its size. >> good to see you. thanks very much. maybe there's a bit of the uk economy we haven't measured that we've forgotten about that we could rebase. >> hopefully. >> that quite be quite handy. a policy overhaul, prime minister renzi implements a sweeping reform package. michelle caruso-cabrera exclusively spoke with the italian foreign minister about the reform package and what will contribute most to the country's growth. >> it's a combination of structural measures notably in the labor market and fiscal measures which cuts the tax wedge, gives more money to households and companies to

invest and spend in consumption and ensure fiscal sustainability even more. debt will start going down next year. it's the combination of these measures that will boost girls in the short term and the medium term. >> there's been criticisms that there's a lack of clarity on where the spending cuts will come from. >> the spending cuts will be broad-based and permanent. this means we will get more resources from our spending review but we will also change the way the public sector spends, both at a central level and local level. >> that means local government, caps on salaries. is there any way to flush that out a little bit? >> as i said, it's broad based. there are items which are relevant, including in the health sector, including in subsidies, including the way civil servants are enumerated. they link salaries to productivity. items like that throughout the government and government-related agencies. >> so many of these reforms have

been talked about before for a very long time in italy. can prime minister renzi get these done now? >> certainly prime minister is a very dynamic person. he's putting a huge amount of political and social pressure into measures. one of the problems with italy paradoxically is not that we do not reform the loss but we do not implement the loss. there are obstacles to be overcome, like public transportation and the judiciary system has to be more efficient. this is a huge cost of doing business in the country, which will be addressed. >> why has it been so hard for italy to reform and why do you think it's finally going to happen now? >> it's been so difficult because italy, like many other advanced economies, has layers of periods in which vested interests have accumulated their capacity and power to say no rather than to say yes. and this requires a huge

political effort. to that effect, one important chapter of the reform policy is the so-called institutional reform agenda which implies a new electoral law, a deep reform of the senate, an elimination of important middle layers stratification of government. all that will show two things, first of all, that government and governance can be simpler and can be less expensive. this, i think, will boost confidence, both in the italians and all those who would like to invest in italy. still to come, a brutal day on wall street. we'll look at the session and what it means for today's trade.

"worldwide exchange," these are the headlines. stocks in europe firmly in the red after a sell-off across u.s. equities sees the nasdaq post its worst session since 2011. jpmorgan and wells fargo kick off first quarter earnings season. analysts expect the u.s. bank giants to see a drop in profits as trading activity remains subdued. legal expenses are likely to weigh. nikkei heavyweight fast retailing down as much as 8%. the owner of uniclo cutting profit guidance. after the shambling rollout

of obamacare, kathleen sebelius is expected to resign. president obama is expected to announce her replacement later today. you're watching "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. very good morning to you state side. welcome to the start of your global trading day on "worldwide exchange." pretty ugly day yesterday for u.s. stocks. this morning, futures are indicating we might -- we might -- take higher at the moment, the dow is 10 points above fair value. we're about a half point above fair value and the nasdaq at the moment is around 1.5 point below fair value. let's recap what happened during the session yesterday. the dow down 1.6%, 266 points lower. the s&p off 39 points. 2% lower for the s&p. and the nasdaq was the one that saw the really ugly selling off, 3% yesterday. a lot of those momentum named

sell-offs, the biggest drop for 2.5 year highs. we're now down 7% from the year's highs for the nasdaq. these are some of the names that were involved in the big sell-off. netflix down 5%, alexion pharma. 50 google down as well as facebook. all of that pain in the equity markets meant gain for the bond markets. ten-year treasury yields, 6.4%. we got to a yield of 2.62, dropping 5% -- not 5%, five basis points rather since trade late on wednesday. elsewhere are the bond yields, ten-year bunds, down 1.53. ten-year gilt yield 2.631%. 101.32 is where we got during

the session. euro/dollar last friday hit a low of 136.72. this morning we're trading just below 13. that's what's happened today. or what is happening today in europe. we had a big sell-off in japan. sri has the update on that for us out of singapore. sri? >> we did, ross. suffice to say, all the major indices were fairly deeply in the red in this region. japan was the rank underperformer, down by 2.4%. we're looking at six-month lows. more importantly for the week as a whole, we saw the sharpest decline of the nikkei since march 2011. so remember what happened back then. march 2011 was when we saw the triple disaster in japan, the earthquake and then the subsequent tsunami and the nuclear disaster in fukushima. you have to appreciate the scale of these losses on a weekly

basis. it wasn't just the negative lead from the u.s. markets that the nikkei and the rest of the indices across this region had to contend with. for the nikkei it was also the currency market pressures because dollar has been on the defensive and money has been heading back into the japanese yen. so the stronger yen hit the exporter stocks, hit the market by implication. there are a couple of stock-related stories i do want to talk about, including fast retailing. they cut their full-year operating profit. bear in mind, fast retailing is an index heavyweight. that laid low the market as well. the china data dump, next week, gdp for the first quarter amongst others in the highlights. over the weekend, more immediately, we got lending data coming out of china. the market will have to contend with those data points next week. back to you now, sir. >> we will do, sri. have a good weekend. thank you very much. that's the latest out of asia. joining us now in the studio, ceo of longview economics.

good morning to you here in london. >> good morning. >> we decided to have a momentum sell-off on the nasdaq stocks. what's going on? >> well, i think this is forthcoming out of the market, classic liquidity that really since we've seen qe starting to slow, there's less money in the world. i think momentum stocks have become real consensus trades and obviously have gone up an awful lot. amazon had gone from a p/e of 20 times four years ago to 80 times, something like that, near its peak. i think this is a rotation, a removal of froth. i think investors will too bullish coming into this year. we need to reposition portfolios. >> we haven't -- i mean, on the year, we haven't really done anything. a lot of movement within it, without any direction of travel. >> equities haven't done anything. corresponds have outperformed. as a global asset allocator,

really, there should have been movement of waitings at the start of the year. i don't think we're played out yet. i think there's more downside over the next few months. >> for equities. >> yes. >> our view this year as being your get better buying points in the middle of the year. we obviously have one in early feb. i think we'll get a better one during the summertime. >> interesting. this sell-off has come as we start the earnings season in earnest for the second quarter. one wonders how that is going to play in. >> i wouldn't be surprised. earnings expectations have been downgraded seriously. from here on out, i wouldn't be surprised if we see the nasdaq make a near-term low in the next week and rally through into earnings season, maybe through to end of may -- end of april into early may. as i said, you'll then see later this summer a more meaningful pullback. >> stay there, chris. good to have you on with us today. earnings season kicks off with

jpmorgan and wells fargo repo reporting before the bell. obviously good earnings news hopefully can turn around yesterday's sell-off. jpmorgan, wells fargo and the financial sector all down in thursday's trading session. also look to see if a decline in legal fees for jpmorgan helps boost their profits. chris, your hopes or fears for the banking sector? >> well, i think banks are still a place to be for the next year or two. particularly in the states, even in europe, they've been cleaning up their mess. but also in the states. we've seen a real acceleration of credit growth this year in the u.s., which, of course, is very important for them. so, yes, a lot of this legal stuff is behind them. >> we still have a foreign exchange -- >> when i say a lot, an awful lot has happened. >> it has, yes. >> let's put it that way. maybe they're two-thirds through.

>> how would you view -- do you think u.s. banks much better shape than -- we have to go to asset quality reviews. >> you get more value in europe. that may work for you. >> okay. stay there. more to come from chris. meanwhile, russia's foreign minister says the country is ready to work with the imf and the eu to help ukraine tackle its economic problems. the comments by anton come after a threat by vladimir putin to cut gas supplies to ukraine. russian premier warned that the delays in paying for russian gas could impact eu supplies. we are joined now from danesk. >> good morning, ross. a lot of challenges facing this ukrainian government. perhaps among those challenges not only the potential of russia cutting off gas supplies to ukraine and europe, also the

political challenge where they have had pro-russian separatists who have overtake n a key publi building here in donetsk. the ukrainian government so far is not going to concede, not only recognizing them but certainly not granting them any kind of political referendum or autonomy. the country's prime minister is in town, he's holding a series of meetings with regional government officials and others to try and end the situation peacefully. the ukrainian government gave the separatists who have overtaken the building a 48-hour deadline. that has now expired. they said if they don't leave the building within those 48 hours, they could risk seeing the use of force. but in the meantime, the interim prime minister is here, holing

those talks. no clear, concrete steps have been announced yet. there is a political attempt to try and defuse this situation peacefully. ross? >> ayman, thanks very much indeed for that. that's the latest from donetsk. google will open up the sale of its google glass product to all u.s. customers on april 15th. the version will sell for $1,500 plus tax with customizable shades and frames. the company did note that there are a limit number of products available and they will not be able outside of the united states. previously google glass was only available to select tester who google calls explorers. amazon is planning to expand its amazon fresh service to 10 or 20 new markets this year, according to ceo jeff bezos. the service allows users to order groceries and thousands of other products for same-day or next-day delivery. it would be the biggest expansion of the service which is currently only available in three cities. amazon also claims progress in

its prime air drone delivery service, bezos saying they're in the sixth generation of test, the eighth generation of designs. so we're asking you, how do you feel about amazon delivering your groceries? would you be a buyer or are you more of a shop the aisle kind of person? and can you see a future of drones delivering your eggs and milk if that's what you want? e-mail or tweet us. what do you think about this drone stuff? i think you need to be living somewhere out in the country, right? where there's not a lot of infrastructure. >> to get the drone delivery. >> i'm guessing. >> it's different. i feel like i'm reliving "blade runner." >> very old. >> '81. >> i'm not fast. if they want to deliver it with a drone, that's fine. i imagine there would be a lot of accidents, wouldn't there? >> if you're in montana or

something, that might be perfect. >> yes, yes. >> new york city -- >> or london. >> i'm quite happy to go to the local shop. >> a bit of exercise. >> yes, exactly. >> stretch your legs. >> keep us walking. >> take the dog, something like that. right. anyway, that's the latest from amazon. still to come, the imf offers more opinions on what the ecb should do next. is mario draghi going to be heeding the advice? mine was earned in korea in 1953. afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the moon in 1971. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection. and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

you're watching "worldwide exchange." and a recap of the headlines. markets in asia and europe follow wall street stocks lower into the red. investors will find out if u.s. banks are ona downslope. and kathleen sebelius to step down following the rocky obamacare rollout. meanwhile, there's absolutely no shortage of opinions on whether the ecb should take further action and what type of action it should or should not take, none more stronger than the imf after being prompted about i a question from cnbc last week, mario draghi commented on what he felt was an intrusion into ecb affairs.

cnbc then gave christine lagarde the opportunity to respond. first up, here's draghi. >> the imf has been of recent, extremely generous in its suggestions on what we should do or not do. and we are really thankful for that. but the viewpoints of the governing council are, in a sense, different. frankly, i would like to -- the imf to be as generous as they have been toward us. also without monetary policy jurisdictions, like, for example, issuing statements just the day before an fomc would take place. >> it's beautiful. >> you weren't offended? >> i have a very thick skin. i'm more focused on his positive comments about what he will do, what the ecb will do in due course. i have full confidence in their good judgment, that they will do what is right. >> an extraordinary exchange.

both of them were answering questions put to them by cnbc correspondents. chris is still with us. it's rather extraordinary. major central banker and the head of the imf, basically conversing in public interviews. >> a french lady, perhaps gets closer to the heart of the problem. >> perhaps, yes. >> it's highly unusual. i don't think i've seen an exchange like that between two senior policymakers. i'm not sure it's constructive, really. in many ways, i think you have to wonder if lagarde is in that sort of french mindset still. pushing for more growth. >> the new foreign minister in france, the first thing he said was the ecb was going to do more. essentially that's what he's saying. she's french and she's saying the ecb has to do more. there was a question about whether they should, will they? there's also a question about let them get on with it.

>> i think you should let them get on with it. in a way, the imf, as well as the sense you're getting from the u.s. authorities, they want the europeans to do more. interestingly, one of the most interesting things in europe is what's happened to the current account in the last two years, which has gone from a deficit a few years ago, a modest one, to a strong surplus in the last couple of years. i think the imf and the u.s. are worried that europe is pushing deflationary forces on the world by saving more, hence their view that the ecb should be stepping up to the plate. the ecb's view reflects shades of the old bundesbank view, that you can print your way forever out of problems. you've got to fix the economy and pay down debt. >> you have to have structural reforms. >> exactly. pay down debt, deleverage banking systems and so on. it reflects the guts of the global macro policy debate. >> will the ecb end up with qe or not, do you think?

i think it's 50/50 on this. i don't really know. >> i mean, i think the key here is if we get a crisis moment coming out of em or china. i think that will force their hand and then we'll see it basically. but they're pretty close. we may get it without that. >> yes. okay. now, look, you may think we'll get a better entry point for western equities. briefly, we have clarification of fed minister yellen's remark was off the cuff with qe and rates rising. what is your thought on fed funds for last year? >> i think that's all about wage inflation. if you look at the states in the early labor market indicators, they're suggesting that the year is starting and the wage inflation is coming. whether it's the middle of next year, i suspect it's early.

money is tightening. we need to reposition markets to effect that properly. >> not until the second part of the year. >> the summer, june, july. rally through there. >> thank you. still to come, is the s.e.c. set to reign in the power of the crowd? we'll be joined by one of the backers of one spot, which is a florida crowd funding festival which now wants to expand here into europe. ♪ [ male announcer ] this man has an accomplished research and analytical group at his disposal. ♪ but even more impressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. ♪ morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. oh, it's not a big deal at all. come on in.

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u.s. open, the european sell-off -- ahead of the u.s. open, the european sell-off has got worse. 30 stocks are in the greene. nasdaq down 3.1%. the nikkei 225 also down at a six-month low. that sell-off triggered by routs of technology stocks on wall street as i say, fast retailing. the benchmark heavyweight down around 8%. this after the clothing giant cut its fully operating profit forecast citing high forecast and weak demand.

meanwhile, shares in retailer gap down heavily in after hours after the company reported same-store sales fell by 6% in march. the biggest declines were at its branches of old navy and at its name sake chain. gap also warned gross margins for the first quarter would drop. meanwhile, the owner of calvin klein, 2$2.8 billion acquisitio of warnico. they said the lack of growth in europe is one hurdle in rebuilding the new buy. >> -- in supporting all things innovation. >> right. we had problems with that. never mind. an s.e.c. committee urged the securities commission to make its proposed crowd funding rulesive tougher. the committee wants to avoid investors being lured into risky startup products and is proposing caps on investment.

the comments come as the second one spark festival in jacksonville, florida, comes to a close. the five-day event is inviting creators to connect projects with investors. and there's been a 56% jump in the number of projects on display. and the team bringing the festival to berlin later this year. now we hope to be joined by peter brumle, former chairman of disney engineering and a major funding behind the crowd funding festival one spark from jacksonville, fairly shortly on the program. whilst we wait for that, the weather wreaked havoc on many retailers. as the weather begins to turn, did the sales rebound? courtney reagan has this report from the annual two-day global retail conference. >> reporter: so far this year has been harsh for retailers with severe winter weather keeping shoppers at home, cranking up the heat. subsequently cutting into their

budgets for discretionary spending for items like clothing, shoes, and any kind of spring apparel. spring weather slow to sprout across the country and easter landing three weeks later this year, wall street had low expectations for retailers' march sales, however, costco managed to surprise to the upside with sales at stores open at least a year gaining 5%. shopper traffic also up 5%. show analysts say recently costco is a rare steady standout in the retail space. l brands saw march sales fall 1 3re1%. susan anderson thinks l brands will be increasing promotions to clear inventory, hoping to spur demand from consumers looking to fill easter baskets and spring wardrobes. gap disappointing with a comp decrease of 6%. worse than the 4.7% drop analysts expected. however, the global apparel

retailer did reaffirm its full-year guidance range. retailers are hanging hope on the easter bunny, hoping that warmer weather will help spur demand for consumers getting back out to the stores. we'll have to wait and see. so far these numbers not inspiring a lot of confidence that pent up demand is coming through. >> courtney regan at the retail conference. we hope to go to the one spark festival in jacksonville, florida. could slowing revenues and legal costs put the good times to an end?

this is "worldwide exchange," the headlines from around the globe, stocks in europe firmly in the red after sell-off across u.s. equities sees the nasdaq post its worst session since 2011. trading activity remains subdued and legal expenses weigh. and fast retailing plunges as much as 8% as the owner of

unik u uniclo wane. and health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius is expected to resign later today. "worldwide exchange," bringing you business news from around the globe. very good morning to you. welcome to this side of the global trading day. equities in europe are heavily in the red. futures after that sell-off this morning. they're not so bad. the nasdaq bown 3%, down 3% yesterday in the session. this morning, pretty much on fair value. it's called for a flat start at the moment. the s&p is 2 points above fair value. the dow jones down 266 points. currently we're trading 15 points above fair value. look at where we stand with europe right now. you'll see the selling momentum has come through. the ftse 100 was up 6 points

yesterday this morning is down with losses. the xetra dax 1.3% down, the cac off 1%. the ftse mib down 1% as well. there are only 30 stocks out of the dow 600 which are in the positive territory. it's heavily weighted to the down side this morning in european trade. it is earnings today. that's what we're focusing in on. it kicks off with the banks. jpmorgan publishes its first quarter numbers before the bell. ceo jamie dimon described this week as nerve-racking. analysts believe the bank could start to move past its legal problems. wells fargo follows soon after. investors begin to get a sense of some of the key themes impacting lenders state side. the recent poor weather and a

possible slowdown in consumer lending could have hit profits. attention turns to citi on monday. there's the potential for a bounce in shares after the price tumbled last month following its failure with the fed to allow it to increase its dividends and share buy backs. bank of america reports wednesday after benefiting recently from cost cutting measures. goldman sachs and morgan stanley will be closing out the week with the focus likely to be on investment banking and health management. we have the director of research from sax in chicago. thanks so much indeed for joining us. i know you're not a banking analyst. >> thanks for having me. >> per se, but nevertheless, what are the key trends you'll be looking for from the banks in their report? >> so the expectations remain fairly low.

total earnings are expected to be down from the same period last year. the overall view was q1 was a tough period for the industry as it was for the entire s&p 500. the the loan growth particularly on the consumer side has remained tepid. although there are some signs on the business side, particularly the c & i loans and the commercial real estate loans are showing signs of life. more importantly, the capital markets business, particularly on the fixed income side has been weak and that weakness has persisted in q1. and the weakness is offsetting the gains that we have seen on the advisory side of the business. the key thing to look forward to, particularly on the call, today from jpmorgan and also from wells fargo is what do they see in terms of business lending

outlook for the rest of the year? the hope is that q1 is the low point for earnings for the group, both in terms of total earnings as well as growth rate. >> where might we see brightness? this is about the outlook for commercial industrial and commercial real estate loans, might be a place where we can get some growth. >> that's right. yes. we saw that the -- there was improvement under those categories. there has been improvement under those categories for some time. we saw slow down in those categories at the start of the year but the trend appears to have turned up again in march. and the hope is that that continues in the rest of the year. and further accelerates. that is a brighter or relatively positive spot for the industry as a whole and on top of the net interest margin appears to have

stabilized as well off remaining a headwind for the group for a long time. >> shiraz, just stay there. i want to get one view on the general earnings season before that. tune in for more on wells fargo first quarter earnings with the ceo. an s.e.c. committee urged its commission to make the rules tougher. the committee wants to avoid investors from being lured into risky startup projects. those comments come as the spark one festival comes to an end in jacksonville, florida. there's been a 56% jump on the number of projects on display. the team are bringing the festival to berlin later this year. joining us, i'm happy to say, peter rummel, a major funder

behind crowd funding festival one spark as well. i'm pleased after our technical issues that we've managed to hook up with you, peter. thanks very much indeed for joining us. how much growth are you seeing in that festival? and what is that telling us about the outlook for crowd funding? >> i think what it's telling us is that everybody who's not new york or london wants to try and figure out how to be. we're trying to figure out how to keep our bright, young people here. it takes two things to keep bright, young people. one is jobs and the other is other bright, young people. what we've tried to do is create energy around people who have ideas to make them realize they're not alone and also to make them realize that there's access to capital. and we've been able to do both. last year we had about a million dollars worth of venture capital floating around. this year we've got over $3.5 million of venture capital. the number of creators is up about 50% over 600. so it is working.

>> now, in the uk you can invest on crowd funding platforms. is that inhibiting investment? >> i think there's a -- we are using two things, really, crowd funding which is only about $300,000 worth of the purse if you will. that's awarded based on voting by the crowd. but the big dollars, the bigger money is the more sophisticated vcs that are here. that's the lure. if the government makes crowd funding harder, they may push it out. when the new rules settle down, we'll figure out whether we can work within those guidelines. >> where do you want to say this? >> well, that's a good question. the irony here is we're about helping startups and we're a startup ourselves. we have discovered through a series of relationships that

berlin is an interesting place and berlin, again, is not jacksonville. it's also not london or new york. they are trying to figure out how to keep their bright people there and energy them. there are lots of people interested. we have people here this week who are looking at us. if there's an opportunity to grow it and help provide this service to other people, then we're happy to do it. >> peter, good to speak to you. sorry we had the problems earlier, but we got to you in the end. chief funder of one spark, joining us from jacksonville, florida, not a bad place to be this kind of year. those are smaller companies being funded. what about the big companies? let's go back to the director of research for zacks in chicago. we get into high gear next week, we talked about the banks.

look, what is this earnings season going to do again? expectations which have been ratcheted down. >> yes, the expectations for q1 remain fairly low, total earnings are expected to be down about 4% only the second we'll have earnings declines since the earnings cycle got under way in 2009. expectations are low but the key element in my judgment is the outlook or guidance for the management team. hopes remain quite high that earnings growth will pick up later this year, starting in the second quarter. and the trend and the outlook on the guidance front has been negative for almost two years now. if we don't see any shift or turnaround on that front, i

think the market could be in trouble, because we'll see estimates continue to go down as they have been for more than a year now. and that will be -- that will be problematic for what you've been seeing in stocks lately. >> do you think we're going to get the growth and profits we need to support current valuations or are valuations going to have to come down to meet the earnings? >> the later. i have been skeptical of the earnings expectations. i think they reflect way too optimistic assumptions about how earnings grow. you need two things for earnings to grow in the aggregate. you need revenue growth, which is a function of the broader economy, and you need margins to improve. now, margins by some measures

are already at record levels. they don't grow forever. they have a tendency to reward -- the key element now is will we see a ramp-up in the global economy? because at the end of the day, the revenues for the s&p 500 track very closely nominal global gdp growth. so if we do get the 3%, 3.5% gdp growth ramp-up that most folks are expecting in the u.s., if china is good, if the rest of the emerging markets continue to grow, though there are questions about that and europe continues to stabilize, then there's some hope that we could see the growth that the market is pricing in right now for later this year in 2015. otherwise we are in trouble. >> shiraz, appreciate your time. thank you. he's director of research at

zacks. coming up, ceo of wells fargo, john stumpf. kathleen sebelius is supposed to step down after the rocky rollout of obamacare. when is this going to happen? >> good morning, ross. days after the enrollment period for the affordable care act ended. health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius is resigning from her post. she was in charge of healthcare.gov and the insurance exchanges itself, which were plagued by difficulties and bad press since last fall. energy and commerce committee chairman fred upton said while her job of overseeing the law is

over, his efforts to get answers for the american people will continue. sebelius notified her decision to step down in early march. the president is expected to make the announcement official later this morning at the white house. president obama will announce his intent to nominate the current office of management and budget director sylvia matthews burwell to this position. the white house now says that 7.5 million people have selected insurance plans. that number surpasses the administration's goal and is higher than many people were expecting a few months ago. ross, back to you. >> thanks so much for that, jackie. have a good day. just days after the enrollment period. let's remind you where u.s. futures are currently trading at the moment. the dow was just around seven points above fair value. the s&p is on it, the nasdaq is

trading low after a big sell-off yesterday. european stocks are heavily into the red as well. we'll look ahead to the trading day, coming up.

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into the red. investors will find out today if u.s. bank revenues are on a downward slope. jpmorgan and wells fargo kicking off the earnings season. and kathleen sebelius is to step down from her posts athe health secretary following the rocky obamacare rollout. south korean smartphonemaker samsung's latest offering, the galaxy s5 launches around the world today. it features a fingerprint scanner as well as a heart monitor. but can it beat the competition? this is as google will open up the sale of its google glass products to all u.s. customers from tuesday, april 15th. the beta version will sell for $1,500 plus tax with customizable shades and frames. the company did note that there are a limit number of products available and that they will not be available outside of the u.s.

previously google glass was only available to select testers who google calls explorers. amazon's planning to expand its amazon fresh service to 10 or 20 new markets this year, according to the ceo jeff bezos. the service allows users to order groceries own other products for same-day or next-day delivery. the current service 0 len a available in three cities. amazon is making progress in its prime air drone delivery service with bezos saying they are in the sixth generation of tests and the eighth generation of designs. still to come, with europe down fairly heavy, will will wall street open after yesterday's sell-off? we get a preview from the cme. with every stay at hampton, enjoy our free hot breakfast options. you did a great job. it looks good!

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head of the u.s. open, u.s. we can -- equities heavyweighted to the down side. we are down currently at the session low. that translates into losses for european equities of well over 1%, down 1.2% across the board. there we go. just look at that. 1.25% down. 1.3 for the ftse 100. that means u.s. futures this morning, while they're not showing those losses, it's the u.s. sell-off that's triggered the losses we have in europe. u.s. futures indicating a fairly flat start after the sell-off, the s&p down 1.8 points. and the nasdaq down 3.5%. following the big 3.1% sell-off we saw yesterday, the biggest

drop in 2.5 years. 7% down from the highs as well. so the big sell-off, of course, in that sector coming from momentum stocks as well. let's get thoughts from chief market strategist at tethis partners. he's in chicago. good morning to you. so put the moves yesterday into context to us if you might. >> good morning to you. well, yes, it was led by technology. to be honest, the interesting part about this move to me, you have a lower bar with earnings season beginning today. alcoa already reported. we have banking earnings today as you've mentioned many times during your show, jpmorgan, wells fargo. i think the sell-off was fair given where earnings are estimated to come in and given that no one is expected to beat,

wells fargo and jpmorgan included. i like the timing of the sell-off to be honest. if you look at the whole correction crowd, it's been growing and it's not going away. if you bring that into may, the sell in may and go away, the old adage. the summer doldrums to so to speak. i'm a little early on that. if we get back to the february lows, that's 7.75% in the dow. that's about 9.25% in the nasdaq. and that could be very, very welcome because i do believe there's going to be a little bit of a weather snap back. not as much as i think everybody was hoping in january and february. i think it's going to come back and that bodies well for q3 and q4. i think the mark set setting up well for this. i think it will be bumpy in the short term. i think this is the start of that correction. >> all right. that's what i was going to ask you, the start of something bigger in the immediate term. >> well, yes, bigger is relative, right? we're talking about a correction

in a bull market. that's what everyone has been looking for. a large part of the market wants that, including myself. i want to get re-involved in the equities in a big way. i can't at these levels and watching how it struggles, with really no indication of where it's going to go from there. we need it to reset the momentum. the momentum names are interesting. momentum and biotech are interesting to me. they tend to outperform in the last 16 to 18 months of the bull market. i don't think we're in the last stages of the bull market. those might be the first dip you buy, especially biotech has entered correction territory. >> it was interesting to look at the biotech stocks performing yesterday as well. what would be, if you're looking for a pull back and you want to re-enter, what is a decent re-entry point for you? >> again, if you go back to the february lows and base over there, you have to base. you can't catch a falling knife. you want to get into a hot air balloon that's rising, not one

that's falling. how is that for two analogies in one sentence? you want to see it base at those levels and turn back up. one of the catalysts could be brutal. more so brent. the sea borne crude, that's been in a down trend since february. it's spiking a little bit with the ukraine, russian, crimean situation. it's telling us that's at least stabilized. if geopolitical intentions with libya can come back on line with their oil, get that back in the down trend, that could be a global catalyst. we have larger problems obviously but i can't look out that far at this point. >> good to see you this morning. have a great weekend. bob ochino, chief market strategist at tethys markets. coming up, the countdown to the open of markets state side with the guys on "squawk box." they'll pick it up from here. we hope you get a profitable day.

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good morning and welcome to "squawk box." the global markets get caught in wall street's down dip. thursday's massive sell-off, is it a preshock, post shock or the main event or a sign that the economy might be not going to do what people think it's going to do? it's the official start of earnings season. banking giants jpmorgan and wells fargo getting ready to turn in quarterly results and health and human services secretary, kathleen sebelius calling it quits. "squawk box" right now. it's friday, april 11th. ♪ this is our last dance

♪ this is ourselves ♪ under pressure good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. if you are just checking in on the markets after yesterday's sell-off, let's get you up to speed. take a look at the futures at this hour. yesterday you saw the dow down by 266 points. the nasdaq was down by 3.1%. you'll see that the u.s. equity futures are indicated slightly higher at least for both the dow and the s&p futures. dow indicated up by less than 20 points, s&p 500 futures indicated up by less than 2 points. nasdaq looks like they're down about 1 point. >> in europe, the major averages are selling off following what happened here yesterday. in germany, dax is down by 1.4%, the ftse off by 1.2% and the cac in france off by 1% as well. in asia overnight, the nikkei tumbled more than 2%, closing below the